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SFC reprimands and fines Raymond Leung Tak Shing $400,000 for breaches of anti-money laundering regulatory requirements

Issue date: 2021-07-05 16:30:00

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded Mr Raymond Leung Tak Shing, chief executive officer, director, compliance officer and money laundering reporting officer of Yardley Securities Limited (YSL), and fined him $400,000 for failures in complying with anti-money laundering regulatory requirements (Note 1).

The disciplinary action follows the SFC’s sanctions against YSL over its failures in complying with the anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulatory requirements when handling third party fund transfers between February and October 2016 (Note 2).

The SFC found that YSL’s breaches at the material time were attributable to Leung’s failures to discharge his duties as a member of YSL’s senior management.

In particular, Leung, who was responsible for handling and approving third party fund transfers at YSL, approved such transfers in two client accounts between February and May 2016 without sufficient scrutiny, nor documenting the enquiries he claimed to have made at the relevant time, despite numerous indicators suggesting that some of them were unusual or suspicious.

As the senior management personnel responsible for overseeing YSL’s AML/CFT systems, he also failed to ensure that YSL had adequate systems in place to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing during the relevant period, and that YSL’s staff were provided with adequate AML/CFT training.

In deciding the disciplinary sanction, the SFC took into account all relevant circumstances, including that:

• Leung adopted a lax attitude when handling a substantial amount of third party transfers in the clients’ accounts; and
• YSL’s failures, which lasted for at least nine months, were attributable to Leung’s failure to discharge his duties as a member of YSL’s senior management.

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Notes:

1. Leung is not a licensed person under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO), but comes within the definition of a “regulated person” under section 194(7) of the SFO which includes a person who is or at the relevant time was a person involved in the management of the business of a licensed corporation.
2. YSL was reprimanded and fined $5 million by the SFC.  Please see the SFC’s press release dated 17 March 2021.

News captured as of:2021-07-05 16:35:00

Source: SFC